CNN – Asia/Pacific

By Brad Lendon, CNN The US Navy submarine that struck an underwater object in the South China Sea last weekend was operating in one of the world’s most difficult undersea environments, one filled with noise from ships above and a seabed with constantly shifting contours that can surprise any submarine crew, analysts say. US defense

By Jessie Yeung, CNN Almost two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, some of the world’s major business hubs — including New York, London and Paris — are reopening as travel restrictions relax and daily life resumes. But one city, arguably Asia’s biggest financial center, is absent from the list: Hong Kong. Hong Kong closed its

By Junko Ogura, CNN An earthquake of 5.9 magnitude struck Japan’s northwestern Chiba Prefecture, which lies east of the capital Tokyo, on Thursday evening, according to the USGS. Japan Meteorological Agency first registered the magnitude as 6.1, with an initial depth of 80 kilometers (50 miles). The earthquake has since been updated to a 5.9

By Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Half a billion dollars of aircraft that flew for about a year. A huge $85 million hotel that never opened, and sits in disrepair. Camouflage uniforms for the Afghan army whose fancy pattern would cost an extra $28 million. A healthcare facility listed as located in the Mediterranean Sea. These

By Sophia Saifi and Azaz Syed, CNN At least 15 people, including eight children, were killed and 200 injured after a 5.9-magnitude earthquake hit southwestern Pakistan in the early hours of Thursday, local authorities said. The toll was revised down by Pakistan’s Provincial Disaster Management Authority from 20 dead and more than 300 injured. The

By Eric Cheung, CNN China could be capable of mounting a “full-scale” invasion of Taiwan by 2025, the island’s defense minister said Wednesday — days after record numbers of Chinese warplanes flew into Taiwan’s air defense zone. “With regards to staging an attack on Taiwan, they currently have the ability. But [China] has to pay

By Akanksha Sharma and Ben Westcott, CNN The only son of late Philippines’ dictator Ferdinand Marcos said on Tuesday he will stand for President next year, becoming the fourth candidate to announce their intention to succeed 76-year-old incumbent Rodrigo Duterte. Ferdinand Marcos Jr., popularly known as “Bongbong”, announced his candidacy for the 2022 presidential election

By Jack Guy and Tim Lister, CNN Afghanistan will resume issuing passports to its citizens, its interior ministry announced Tuesday, in a first under the country’s new Taliban government. Ministry spokesman Qari Saeed Khosti said it will provide applicants with documents physically identical to those issued by the previous government, which issued passports under the

By Amy Woodyatt, CNN Korean exports seem to be sweeping the world’s screens, headsets and runways — and now more than 20 words of Korean origin have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in its September update. Over the past two decades, South Korea has churned out entertainment coveted by millions of fans,

By Sarah Dean, CNN Taliban forces unlawfully killed 13 ethnic Hazaras — including nine surrendering former government soldiers and a 17-year-old girl — in Afghanistan’s Daykundi province on August 30, according to a new investigation by Amnesty International. Since the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and subsequent Taliban takeover there has been concern that long-persecuted ethnic

By Ben Westcott, CNN New Zealand will begin to move away from a zero-Covid strategy toward living with the virus, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Monday, becoming the latest country to abandon its elimination attempts in the face of the highly-contagious Delta variant. After shutting its borders early in the pandemic, New Zealand has reported

By Rebecca Wright, Ivan Watson, Zahid Mahmood and Tom Booth, CNN The raids started after midnight in Xinjiang. Hundreds of police officers armed with rifles went house to house in Uyghur communities in the far western region of China, pulling people from their homes, handcuffing and hooding them, and threatening to shoot them if they

By Swati Gupta, CNN India’s top court on Monday approved the government’s decision to pay about $670 for every coronavirus death in the country as compensation to the next of kin of the deceased. The payments tally to more than $300 million based on India’s current death toll, according to CNN’s calculation. It had officially

By Brent Swails, Clarissa Ward and Scott McWhinnie, CNN A terrorist attack didn’t stop Atifa Watanyar from teaching, but she worries the Taliban will. Even before the militant group marched into Kabul, the English teacher felt intense uncertainty and heartache. In early May, she was at the entrance of the Sayed Al-Shuhada school on the